As human beings, everything we are and have, we have received as gift from God, often through the instrumentality of others. And because we have received, we give to others the gift of what we are and have. However, it is often tempting to keep our gifts for ourselves, and not share them with others. Sometimes we are tempted to give, but only to get something in return ---- praise, a good name, status and power in society. Sometimes we give to God in order to get favors ---- a good job, success, and healing. Whereas it is admirable that we expect favors from God and not from human beings, how much more wonderful would it be if we can give, freely and joyfully, for the sheer joy of giving, without expecting anything in return, neither from human beings nor from God. Freely. Totally. Joyfully.♥
"Where your treasure is, there your heart is also." Our hearts can easily become fixed on "earthly treasure." Our tendency to look for happiness in material things is what makes us so susceptible to the clever deceptions of the world of advertising. Everyone knows, of course, that buying a certain product ---- a soft drink or shampoo will not give us the earthly paradise that the commercials portray, but as long as we long for earthly treasure, the advertisements are still effective. We are told not to waste our time storing up material wealth, such as money, clothes, possessions. These things are good when they are used for the right purposes, but they simply do not last, so they cannot give us lasting security or happiness. Since we live in an age when so many products are deliberately manufactured 'not to last', this message should be even more obvious to us. All we have to do is look at a ten-year-old car or cell phone and we can see that material things can give us only passing happiness. The odd thing about living in a materialistic age is that this very lesson is so often missed. The rapid breakdown of one gadget only leaves us hungering for the new, improved version. How can we be so easily fooled into thinking that this one will succeed in making us happy, when the previous ones all failed so miserably? We can be quite irrational about our early possessions, like the compulsive gambler who thinks that he will be satisfied forever if he can just win the jackpot one time. Even if we are to buy a product that will potentially last for generations (if it is not lost or stolen), a piece of golden jewelry, for example, or a diamond, we will not enjoy it forever ---- we will leave it behind when we die. The ancient Egyptians used to bury their kings surrounded by things that they thought they would need in the next life. When archeologists dig up their tombs thousand of years later, most of the items are corroded. But even those that remain intact are of absolute no use to the dead man buried with them. Completely Change the focus of our hearts to "store up heavenly treasure," treasures that really lasts. At the very end, nothing else will matters but, love.♥
